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As far back as 2011, reports have been coming in of a sometimes masked others not, vigilante preventing crimes around our city. The first known report was submitted by an elderly women who told officers that she noticed man in her yard attempting to steal her show Pugs (dogs). She claimed that a boy flew in from the sky, knocked the thief down and tied him to the tree nice and tight, to wait for the police to arrive. The reports and stories similar to this one have been coming in on a consistent basis. Pleased residents of our town have been voicing their praise for the heroic efforts this boy has shown to keep our city safe. On the other hand the mayor and Chief of police have been known to voice their skepticism on the overall good that civilian vigilantism brings our town. Last year the Police Chief Tim Vasquez said that civilians only place themselves and others in danger when they attempt to bring people who commit crimes to justice. None the less the boys efforts have been noticed and praised. The name given to him by some of the first beneficiaries of his heroism in Super/Spider-Man.

Down wind at the Disney movie studios, they took an interest in these articles and stories. Trying to keep up with the Marvel comic series of superheros (The Avengers, X-men, etc.). they purchased the rights to Super/Spider-Man’s story. The Super/Spider-Man, donated all proceeds from that financial windfall to the Texas Rangers Baseball team, in an effort they would spend it on an actual big league Catcher. They are making the hero their new star in their latest superhero movie. With an overall budget already set at 150 millions dollars, they (Disney) are not shying away from attempting to make this the best super-hero movie ever made.

In between acting and saving lives in the evening, LJ Galvan II has not had the time to do the routine pre-release talk show circuit rounds, to promote the film. But Disney’s marketing Director has taken the challenge on personally to pick up the slack, and he does not anticipate anything less than sold out crowds at every theater across the country on opening night.

Assignment 2 create: Probably 2 stars tops.

Step 1: Think of something (a story) that if you read in the paper would make you laugh.

Step 2: Using whatever resources you have at your disposal, create a template for a newspaper.

Step 3: Write a up a story that would make you and others laugh, it could be an inside joke that only a handful of your ds106 friends would get, or a slice of your sense of humor. Anything and everything is acceptable.

Step 4: Publish, so we could all enjoy your work. (The first newspaper story is my submission).

I thought this 5 star project would be fun. Turns out it wasn’t, I encountered all sorts of downloading, copyright issues etc. I had to splice pictures in sequence, in an effort to try to tell a story from beginning to end (from taking the field to the final whistle).

I remember watching this movie for the first time when I was 13. Unfortunately my grandma just passed away. My big sister, brother and I got to stay home all week from school. I remember going to the video store to get some movies to kill the time during the day. Of course I mourned and was sad that my favorite women passed away, but I also remember my brother and I scheming at the video store to weasel our dad into letting us get American Psycho. My parents never let us rent R rated movies. But when we gave my dad (who just lost his mother) the movie to pay for, I remember him looking at us. He was hurting and he knew we were as well. He paid for it without ever saying a word, he just gave us that look that parents give their kids sometimes, the white flag look. So after watching it I was forever skeptical of bakers and stock traders. Still am. I thought it was a great movie then, pretty messed up, and well put together. But as a 13 year old kid the impression it left on me was that of “never trust a banker/hedge fund manager/wall street trader” etc., because they are crazy, drug using, psychos.

OK, now that I got that out of the way here is a quick write up on it.

Viewing on silent: There are many examples of the rule of thirds shot in this scene. Patrick is shown on the right and center much more than on the left. Meaning, that the director possibly wants the viewer to look at him favorably up until this point in the film. When Patrick kills Paul, the director leaves the camera on Patrick’s face, while blood is spatting up on it. This leaves the viewer to mentally imagine what is taking place below the shot.

Viewing blind: The scene comes off as a basic conversation, pace is normal, and tones are average. As Patrick pumps himself up to perform his massacre, his voice starts to change. Then he plays “Hip to be a Square” on high (volume). The killing and screaming is synced with the verse of the song. The chorus, comes in when he is done with the murder.

Putting it all together: In my opinion none of the visuals go hand in hand with the conversation and music. It’s just such an odd sequence of events, un-expected for the first time viewer, and kind of illogical. But that is the whole premise of the film. It does not make sense that a seemingly normal man would be so neurologically in-balanced.

My first go around at college I had a roommate who was a undergrad film student at UT. Prior to living with her I never really looked at movies abstractly. Meaning in my opinion I never thought about why a film made me feel, think a certain way or empathize. Through conversations we had in front of the TV, I gained a little perspective regarding that aspect of films. After reading Mr. Eberts how to read a movie, I performed his “Cinema Interpretus” method to a Quentin Tarantino film (Kill Bill). Here is what I took from the clip and the re-viewing of that film:

1. From below: In my opinion I think he does a lot of pointless shots, cinematography wise. But I do not think his from below technique is one of them. Shooting from below is used primarily to give perspective from the person or thing that the subject is looking on or at. In most cases with Tarantino it is a victim looking up at an oppressor. It gives the viewer a sense of empathy or pity, because in some ways they can somewhat put themselves in that subjects position. Which is helped greatly by the angle of the shot. On a side not I thought Kill Bill was overdone. Also the fact that he “bleeped” the main characters name the whole movie was silly in my opinion. Good plot, and great character development though.

2. The Shining (zooms): I noticed that all of the zooms are very deliberate and slow. They were centered around capturing a feeling or emotion from the subjects face. They all start off from afar or close up and moves away or closer. I didn’t come across one that started from a medium distance. Kubrick made iconic cinematic scenes with this technique. The “here’s Johnny” scene stands out the most, and countless poster-ized scenes of the children in the hall.

3. Kubrick: (one point perspective): I enjoyed this clip the most. It focused on drawing the eye tot he center of the screen. Everything else in the shot, though it mattered, played a supportive role around the focus. The only film I recognized in the sequence of clips was “the Shining”. Looking back on what i can recall of that film, is that this perspective made things seem bigger, longer, wider, grander etc. than they were. It made the dining room seem like a banquet hall, the hall to be a mile long an the ceilings to be taller than normal. Overall I think this shot trick makes things larger than life, or just overwhelming in general.

After listening to Ira and Jad, I was able to connect the dots as to why I thought a movie was bad and why I thought a movie was good (all things being even). All things being even, meaning the thesis of the film was decent, Ira pointed out regarding radio (which I think relates directly to TV) a story has to have building blocks. It can’t just throw information out of context at you and expect you to care about what is going to happen next, or hold your attention. For example the story in the film Pulp Fiction, the story teller (director) took entire scenes from the film and cut them up ad placed them in different orders in the film. Pulp Fiction was a great hit with the counter culture crowd but failed miserably to hold the attention of critics and the general public. The Hangover 2 & 3, neither film had a moment of reflection, that is to say it never raised questions thus the film was awful. The story never made the viewer wonder, and at the end none of the building blocks Ira laid out were met.

Jad focused more on how to capture the imagination of the listener. Growing up I remember listening to Brent Musberger voice on the radio. Many times I was sitting in a dear blind with my dad wishing I was at the game he was broadcasting instead. Many of the things Jad spoke about, such as dialogue balance, creating a visual picture of the atmosphere of the game, allowing the listener to visually see what he was describing etc. Brent did that for me. More times than not I would be listening to Brent and visually seeing myself at the game and be surrounded by the images he placed in my imagination. Because of Brent, deer hunting on Saturday mornings wasn’t so bad.

Eventually after graduation I think I would have a card similar to this, without the fake information. It’s simple, bold (if made on bonded paper with texture) and conveys what i am trying to convey. That is, I am not wasteful.

Here is a pic of two french children exchanging their first gift to each other. Around this time they begin to play a game that they can only say “game” too. Meaning they have to say yes I am game to do that. Essentially it is truth or dare with out the truth. As they grow into their twenties they continue this game they started with each other as children, one time he dared her not to come around for a year, and once she dared him to not come around for ten. They both did it. After spending years apart from the person they truly love they come back together (second photo) and decide they do not ever want to go a day with out seeing each other again (just like when they were school children).